Shinjitaku
by TimberlineWolf
Summary: What happens if a player wasn't alone on the night of the Apocalypse? What if their young child was with them IRL? The Answer? Something Amazing
1. Prolouge

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

* * *

..."!" Small, stormy blue eyes snapped open with a start. Something was wrong. Missing.

"Papa?" As the eyes scanned the room they come to a stop on the glowing screen in front of them.

**Welcome to Elder Tale**

_**The NovaSphere Pioneers**_

_:Would you like to Play?:_

_*****_**[**_** YES **_**]**_*** **_**[**_** NO**_** ]**

seemingly in some trance like state, a small chubby hand reaches up.

`CLICK`


	2. Chapter 1

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

* * *

Deep in the forest, hidden among the mountains, was small peaceful valley with a crystal clear lake. In the middle of this lake however, rested a large church-like building, connected to the shore via bridge. A Cathedral. This was a new concept in the expansion of the popular MMORPG _Elder Tale; Wilderness Revival Zones._ Normally when a players dies, they are revived in the Cathedral of the last city they visited. Wilderness Revival Zones act are supposed to act like waypoints from city to city, reviving the player at the last zone they visited if they are unlucky along the way. The only thing was, this wasn't in line with _any_ towns, cities, or dungeons on the map, but rather, for all intents and purposes, the middle of nowhere!

But it was not uninhabited.

"uh-Huh?" Icy, storm blue eyes flickered open to a sea of sun dappled green. "Trees?" The small six year old boy sat up and looked around confused. "Papa?"

Where was Papa? The last thing his little head remembered was sitting in Papa's lap watching him play his favorite video-game. He must have falleded asleep. But, Where was Papa?

"PAPA?!" The boy cryed out, hoping his father would hear him and come get him. A rustle in the bushes was his startling answer. He spun around. "Papa?"

However what came out of the bush was not his father. Drawn by the noise a young Dire Wolf had come to investigate the strange thing that dared to invade it's newfound territory. To it's astonishment, it discovered, not an invading threat, but a small 'venture-pup. What was it doing all the way out here? And so young? Noticing the pups lack of hostile intent or indeed, any sort of protection, the young wolf decided to get closer to investigate.

The boy meanwhile, was trapped between fear and awe. He remembered watching Papa play games were the big dogs would try to hurt you, so you had to make them go away, but the natures shows were always his favorite. He'd always wanted to see the animals up close, now that he was though, he didn't know what to do. The big dog, wolf he thought the shows called it, was coming closer, it was almost as tall as Papa! He cringed and covered his face with his arms, though he didn't look away.

The young wolf paused as the small 'venture-pup cringed and hid behind it's arms. This was definitely _not_ standard Adventurer behavior. Normally they'd either get into a defensive position, run, or charge screaming. And where were the others? It was almost unheard of for Adventurer's to be alone away from a settlement. It looked around carefully, sniffing the air as it did. While young, it had one of the best noses among its old pack, even at it's age. Sensing no other humans near or far, it cautiously lowered it's head and sniffed the pup, giving it a gentle nudge as it did so.

While gentle, the nudge did have an unfortunate effect of pushing the boy over onto his bum, not having braced himself for the unexpected contact. However this was not the only unexpected result of the contact. When he opened his eyes from his landing, a large red window opens up in front of him bearing the message:

_**Direwolf Genus Now Added to Genus Slot 1**_

_**Do You Accept?**_

**\- [ _Y__es _] - [ _No _] -**

"Wha?" Still confused about what's going on, the boy looked around for some hint as to this strange message is. What happened though, is that the message followed his gaze and remained all he could see. Not knowing what else to do and being six years old, he reached out his hand and touched yes. And everything immediately changed. For one, everything seemed a little smaller all of a sudden. Then, everything seemed much...sharper. Sight, sound, smell, everything was suddenly more, _there_ than it was a second ago. Also among the sharper things were his teeth and nails, which he discovered as he went to scratch his mysteriously itchy arms, At the same time he found his arms covered in fur from the elbow down, a brown to match his now slightly longer hair. Last on his list of new body things, was the brand new long fluffy tail wagging behind him not very different from the wolf now sitting in front of him. Also of note were his furry, wolf-like legs and furry shoulders.

Immediately thereafter, yet another large red window appears.

**_New Abilities gained!_**

**_Dire Lope - Now able to quickly travel long distances without tiring  
__Pack Leader - Now able to command Genus Wolf creatures of equal or lesser level  
__Wolf Tongue - Now able to communicate with Genus Wolf creatures  
__Part of the Pack - Genus Wolf creatures will no longer attack unless provoked (some attacks can be avoided with talking)_**

**_New Attacks!_**

**_Dire Fang Fist - physical  
__Canine Kick - physical  
__Howling Fang - magic  
__Dire Blast - magic_**

**__Increase Size  
___**Increase Speed**  
_****_Increase Strength  
_****_**_Increase Attack  
_**_****_Increase Health  
_****_Increase Cold Resist  
_****_Increase Poison Resist_**

"Hey Pup, you alright?" The question startled him back to reality.

"Huh!?" He looked back at the wolf in front of him, the red window disappearing, forgotten.

* * *

The wolf had since laid down, having confirmed that the pup was no threat to it and, judging by its sudden change, might even be an ally. He watched in mild amusement as the pup flopped around to look at his new form. Interesting, he'd never heard of an adventurer changing like that, save for mabey druids, but then, he was still rather young himself.

He decided to try and ask the pup what it was doing here, though he dreaded the game of charades that was soon to follow. Oh well. First things first though, he had to get it's attention.

"Hey Pup, you alright?" Sure the pup wouldn't understand him, but it would get his attention just fine and there was no reason to be rude, even if they couldn't understand you.

"Huh!?" The startled response was rather entertaining though. The pup stared at him for a moment before giving a nervous swallow.

"U-Uh-huh" he seemed to remember something before continuing. "I'm okay wolf-san."

"Well, that's goo-" The wolf began before something very important hit him. The pup had responded _to his question!_

"WAIT! You can understand me?!" Unfortunately unnoticed by wolf-san, his posture was now somewhat less relaxed, and his tone seemed to frighten the poor child.

"Y-y-yes. That's what the thing said, I thinks." By now Wolf-san had noticed his affect and the pup and relaxed again, much to the boys obvious relief.

"What thing?" Wolf-san hadn't seen the message as only those to whom the message pertained could see it.

"The red thing that poppeded up when I falled down. It had words on it." Let it be known that this is still a six year old and as such grammar is not his strongest suit.

'_Well that definitely proves that he's an adventurer. Though why he wouldn't know what things are called is still a mystery._'

"What's your name, pup?"

"Kenka Hikaru."

"What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Iunno. Where is here?"

"Mountains."

"oh." Hikaru's reply was rather subdued. _'I need to find Papa, but where is Papa?'_ then he brighten a little.

"What's _your_ name?"

Wolf-san was rather perplexed at this. Noone had ever bothered A: ask him his name before, and B: bother to give him one in the first place!

"I don't have one. I never needed one before."

Hikaru frowned at this. "But everyones s'pose to have a _name_!" The very idea that his new mabey-friend didn't have a name seemed downright offensive; not that he really had any notion of what that was yet.

"Well then give me one!" Wolf-san, oddly agitated himself now at his apparent lack said with a hint of frustration.

"Hmmm." The overlarge canine almost laughed aloud at the downright comical expression of deep thought the pup had sunk into upon attempting to come up with the perfect name.

"Whitey? No." Hikaru shot that down before Wolf-san could even open his mouth.

"Not that I'm objecting to that verdict mind you, but why not?"

"What does 'verdick' mean?"

One could almost _hear_ the sweatdrop form on the large wolf. _'Right. Still a pup.'_

"VerdICT. With a 'T' at the end. It means decision."

"Oh. Well it would be weird to call you by Papa's name."

"Oh, that makes sense I suppose." Wolf-san said thoughtfully.

"Hmm. Well, waddya do?" It stared at him, deadpanned; not that the boy noticed this.

"I'm a DireWolf pup. I hunt and kill things."

"oh. Well how 'bout Ryoshi then?"

Wolf was suddenly very attentive. "Ryoshi?"

"It was the hero of one of my favorite stories my Papa read to me. Papa said it means Hunter."

"Very well then. My name is Ryoshi."

"YAY!" Needless to say, the sudden act of a six year old direwolf-boy leaping forward to encircle his neck in a hug surprised the newly named Ryoshi terribly.

They sat like that for a couple minutes, Ryoshi in stunned silence, and Hikaru just reveling in the warm feeling of fur and new friends. After another 30 seconds of silence Ryoshi, not really knowing what to do, decided to play along and brought his head down for a close facsimile of a hug, he is a huge wolf after all.

And then the moment was ruined by rather loud rumbling growl. Immediately Ryoshi was on his feet scanning the forest for any threat to his younger charge (he couldn't just leave the pup now could he?). It wasn't until half a minute later that he heard a little giggle from the forest floor before him. He looked down in confusion at his new young friend.

"What?"

"That was my tummy silly! I'm hungry!" To Hikarus immense delight, Ryoshi then proved that yes, Wolves can facefault too, even Dire ones.

Still with audible sweatdrop on his head, he sat back up with a sigh. "Well then, eat something!"

"But I dun have any food."

"Oh." That would be a problem. He'd have to think of something for that. Wait. Back at the lake, there was a building. Perhaps there was food to be had for the pup in there.

"C'mon Pup. Let's go see if we can find you some food."

"YAY! FOOD!" The child's cry of joy reminded him of something else.

"Hey Pup, try to keep it down okay? We don't really want to attract attention. There are things out here that can really hurt you."

"Oh. Okay!" Hikaru's cheerful demeanor lessened somewhat, but shortly came back in full force. As Ryoshi was wandering towards the lake, Hikaru spent his time running around looking at various plants, animals, and rocks.

When they reached the forests edge, they were treated to the beautiful sight of the lakebound cathedral. The majestic marble building surrounded on all sides by a mile of pristine crystal blue water was truly a sight to behold. Of course that only lasted until Hikaru caught sight of what _else_ was on the shore.

There, down by the water was a beautiful blue woman with long blue watery hair and fins by her ears. Surrounding her, however, were several large crabs, snapping their pincers at her menacingly menacingly. It wasn't until Hikaru heard the small moving figure moving figure _behind_ the water lady that Hikaru acted.

_Flashback_

_"Please! leamme alone!" A small, blue haired girl sobbed as she was shoved to the ground._

_"What kind of kid has blue hair anyway?" One of the three older boys asked her, not really wanting an answer._

_"It's too long too. I think we should cut it!" A second boy shouted getting cries of confirmation from his cohorts._

_"No, please. Just leave me alone. Please!" _

_"HEY!" Everyone turned around to see another boy, roughly the girls age, glaring at thee group of older boys._

_"Leave her alone!"_

_The older trio looked at each other and smirked down at the boy. "Well, well, well. Looks like we got us a real hero guys." The lead boy said. "Let's show the kid how we treat hero's."_

_Surprisingly, the boy took that as his cue, not to run for help, but to charge, startling all three into inaction just long enough for the boy to reach the lead bully. Bracing himself for a sloppy, five year old punch, he was entirely unprepared for the young hero to launch himself bodily at the older boys leg, holding onto it for all he was worth. The bully, being only a couple of years older, was swiftly thrown off balance and fell, unable to dislodge the boy. Be it intent or unlucky coincidence, the hero's head came down upon the leaders groin, eliciting the expecting shrill yell of pain for the older boys mouth. His friends, shocks awake by his pained scream, immediately went to assist their downed leader by kicking and hitting the boy still clinging to his leg._

_It was then that the boy and girls parents arrived._

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

"UMIII!"

Hikaru's angered shout and charge was enough to stun everyone present, not the least of which was the little girl, the water lady, and Ryoshi.

"Hikaru-kun?" The girls timid voice was quiet enough that not even the Undine heard her. But what _really_ surprised everyone was when, halfway through his charge against the crabs, he fell to running on all fours, picking up speed even and at five feet away from the enemy bellowed, "**_HOWLING_****_ FANG!_**"


	3. Chapter 2

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

* * *

Ryuuzaki Umi was scared. The last thing she remembered was going to her mother because of a nightmare she'd had of one of the many times she'd been bullied for her unusual hair, then, she'd woken up here, on a beach she was sure she'd never seen before. After crying out for her mother several times, the only thing she'd attracted was a very pretty water lady. Undine, said the weird little box that showed up next to it as she looked.

They had had much the same conversation as Hikaru and Ryoshi earlier. However, they were rather rudely interrupted by a group of giant bright orange crabs that The Little Box called Ascot crabs.

"Yoshida-chan! Look Out!" Umi cried as she lunged to knock her newfound watery friend out of the way of a crabs sneak attack. This had the added effect of adding Genus Undine to her Genus Slot 1. Unfortunately, noone had the time to examine the changes as the attack that had been meant for Yoshida the Undine, instead hit little Umi in the back!

"Umi-chan!" Yoshida, having been just newly named by her young new friend, was needless to say, rather scared for the little girl, and notably pissed at the crab that hit her! She was only a little girl! She wasn't ready for any of this! Thus it was that the large, three foot crab met its end at the hands of a furious Undine's Water Bullet spell.

The rest of the crabs, being stupid crabs, did not flee or cringe, or indeed, react at all to their comrades demise. Unfortunately, their stupidity combined with their numbers was enough to actually make them dangerous.

"_No! PLease! Stop! Stop hurting us! Please!"_ Umi was starting to withdraw in on herself as horrible memories of the times she was bullied came to the surface, regrettably not having to travel far. With these however came one particular memory, of a boy around her age that saved her from the bullies before, which she seized upon with all her little might.

_"Help! Please! Help Me! HIKARU-KUN!"_

"UMIII!"

Said girl lifted her head in stark disbelief. There, charging on all fours at the crabs like the wolf behind him that he now resembled, a look of utter rage on his now somewhat terrifying visage, was the very same boy that had saved her before. The very same one who, in her desperation, she had just called out to for help!

"Hikaru-kun?" The girls timid voice was quiet with shock as her little six year old mind, simple though it yet was, did not fail to immediately grasp at what she felt was most important right now.

_'He had saved her again.'_

"**_HOWLING_****_ FANG!_**"

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

Hikaru had no real clue what he was doing, but then, by this point he'd lost most semblance of clear thought. His friend was being hurt by bullies again, and Papa had taught him that bullies were _bad_. The concussive roar that erupted from his mouth did little to shake him from his haze, so focused was he on the ones who'd hurt his friend. The crabs, however, took it full force and were sent flying a good fifteen feet away, all landing in a scattered heap, their health bars knocked down a quarter; not that Hikaru had noticed The Little Boxes yet.

Still set on making them pay for hurting Umi, he charged forward again, slashing at them all as he nimbly leaped through them.

"_**Dire Fang** **Fist!**_"

Landing on three legs ten feet away from his adversaries, He raised his left arm (the one not on the ground), and, his hand glowing red with power, slashed at the air towards the doomed crustations.

"_**Dire Blast!**_"

The diagonal wave of crimson energy shot towards it's target, and detonated. What remained when the smoke cleared, was seven dead, three-foot crabs, leaking rainbow colored bubbles.

"Yoshida-chan?"

Then, he'd set his sights on Umi.

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

Umi was crying tears of relief. Her hero had come and saved her again. That he had done so by utterly obliterating the bullies didn't even register. After all, last time he'd saved her he'd attacked the bullies too. This was no different, right?

Being six, she didn't realize that this was not the case until Yoshida-chan stopped her from getting closer to hug the boy in relief.

"Yoshida-chan?"

"Stay back Umi-chan, somethings wrong."

"Wha-" The sudden feeling of dread that washed over stole the breath from her lungs. As she turned back to her would be savior she saw just _what_ was wrong. Gone were the childish, fun-loving eyes of her friend, replaced with a glowing blue madness that promised nothing but pain to whatever they look at. And they were looking at _her! _Umi stepped back in fear at what had become of her friend.

This, however, seemed to be his cue to charge. However, just as he seemed about lunge at them, that huge white wolf from before, DireWolf, lunged in himself and tackled the boy, pinning him to the ground bodily, the boys neck in his massive jaws.

"HIKARU-KUN!" Umi cried out, fearful for her friend, seemingly in danger. All fear for herself temporarily forgotten, she forward to help her friend, only to grabbed by Yoshida again.

"Umi-chan, Wait! He's a friend. He's trying to help him!"

"Eh?" Was the best response Umi's addled brain could come up with.

"Look closely, Umi-chan. He's afflicted with a Status Effect." Yoshida told her calmly, even as Hikaru continued to struggle with increased vigor.

"Wha-? I don't-?"

"Look closely, Umi-chan. You can help him. You just need to _see_ the problem."

Umi was still thoroughly confused, but decided to trust her watery friend. As she stared harder and harder at her mad friend, she saw The Little Box appear for him too, though it was different for him then Yoshida or, Ryoshi? That must be the DireWolf's name. Hikaru's box was bigger, red, with more numbers then their friends and a diamondy(cut diamond, not the four sided kind) shape with a scary looking animal face in it. It was different enough from Yoshida's or Ryoshi's that she couldn't find what was wrong at first, until she saw the little, slowing flashing picture by his name. It looked like someone wearing an animal hat that hid their eyes, making an angry face and surrounded on either side by red droplets.

When she focused on the picture another Littler Box showed up.

**_Berserker Blood Frenzy -_**_ Attack UP Confusion -Target is afflicted with overwhelming rage and blood-lust, will focus on anything nearby that grabs it's attention single-mindedly and attack until target is dead, cured or victorious, in which case they will move onto next target till exhaustion overtakes them._

"Hikaru-kun." she whispered, putting her hands to her mouth in worry. She knew what was wrong now, but how was she to fix it. Luck was on her side thought it seems, as the thought of curing brought an immediate action to mind. Though she didn't know where it came from, she didn't hesitate in the slightest to follow the instinct. If it could help Hikaru, that was all that mattered.

Putting her hands in front of herself, palms overlapping and out turned, she took a deep breath and focused, just as Hikaru managed to break free of Ryoshi's grapple and charge at her.

"_**Soothing Waves!**_"

A pulsing blue aura burst from her hands to engulf her crazed protector, just as he was two feet away freezing him on the spot. As the soothing blue energy permeated his body, he began to glow a soft blue to match, and they could see the madness drain from his features.

As the last of the spell came to an end, Hikaru collapsed to the ground, unconscious from his ordeal.

"Hikaru-kun!" Sure now that there was nothing preventing her from reaching her fallen friend she rushed towards him, her tears of relief back in full force. About two feet away from him however, the world decided to be just plain unfair as the waterfront nearest burst upwards into the sky, the falling water revealing none other than an even bigger crab than before; this one being a shade rather reminiscent of red/purple grapes.

Everyone stared at it in stunned silence for exactly two seconds before it raised its claws in the air bellowed menacingly,

"**KHUKHII!KHUKHIII!**" (think of krabby from pokemon)

Another two seconds pass as slowly, thrown by the waterburst, a small wizzened stick tumbled through the air bounce harmlessly off of Umi's head; which happened land right in her hand through some irreplicable coincidence.

And something inside little, six year old, Ryuuzaki Umi _snapped_.

"grrrrrrnnNO! No! No! No! No! NO!" Yoshida and Ryoshi could only stare at the young girl as she threw her, in their opinion, completely justified tantrum, Ryoshi even backed up a bit. When the girl started walking forward with no hesitation they were completely flummoxed when even the huge Great Crab backed up in fear, its tiny mind able to register the anger flowing off the small child even through its thick shell. As Umi continued to approach, most rational thought gone beyond the need to _get to Hikaru-kun_, she brandished the small stick in her hand up in front of her face like one would a wand or sword at the start of a fencing match; she'd watched her older sister in some of her practice matches before and had always wanted to try it; then thrust it out horizontally, arm fully extended, and still walking towards the scared crab, steps full of purpose, she called out:

"_**Mizu Henge! Ha!**_" And to the ever increasing astonishment of all present, water burst force from the top of the hand holding the wand, engulfing it entirely before bursting away just as quickly leaving behind a glowing blue rapier made of water! And she charged.

For a little six-year-old girl with no swordplay experience whatsoever, she was remarkably good with that thing.

After thirty seconds of rating at the Grape (hey if the normal ones are apricots, then why the heck not), punctuating every other word with slash or stab she jumped back a couple feet, grabbing at the sword hilt holding it like a home-run hitter would their favorite lucky bat, and shouted out as she charged back in, the sword growing longer and longer as the tip swelled to grand proportions,

"Will, you, just go AWAY! You, great, big, Squirrley, _BUTT-HEAD! **LAKESIDE HAMMER!**_"

And with that she swung with all her rather considerable, considering her age at least, might, and _Launched_ the unlucky purple sea-spider up into the air above the lake, disolving completely into rainbow bubbles as what was left felt to the water below. Yoshida made a note memorize that location so she could retrieve for Umi later.

Huffing and puffing from the unaccustomed exercise, Umi slowly turned back and ran back to Hikaru on the ground. She kept the sword out though, she was tired of interruptions darnit!

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

"Hikaru-Kun? Hikaru-kun!"

"Meh-Eh-eh!" Papa would understand Hikaru's usual grumblings to let him sleep some more hopefully and leave him be. He'd been having this really cool dream where he'd saved Umi-chan from a bunch of water monsters!

"HIKARU-KUN!" The shaking continued despite his wishes. Wait! That wasn't Papa's voice! And why was he in the sand? Had he fallen asleep in the sandbox again?

"Ehh?" Still groggy, he opened his eyes only to find he was still face first in the sand.

"Argh!" He sat up, rubbing at his eyes furiously in an attempt to clear them of the painful grit. Unfortunately, being six, he forgot to take into account that hands and arms were themselves covered in sandy fur. So all he really managed to do was rub more sand in his eyes. He'd always hated getting things in his eyes. It was as was worse than _bullies_, cause you couldn't just confront it like you could bullies. Thankfully, this little round of ocular torture was short lived as he felt a cool hand gently grab his hands away from his face, followed by a soothing wet sensation pass over, and into, his eyes that seemed to make the horrible stuff just disappear like magic!

Blinking a couple times to make sure his eyes worked, he looked up only to be tackled back down with a strangled cry of 'Hikaru-kun!' Looking down, he found to his amazement the very same blue haired girl he'd just been dreaming about crying in his lap!

"Umi-chan!" He shouted out, ecstatic at seeing his friend in this strange place. It wasn't till she looked up him that he saw she wasn't quite as he remembered.

While she still had the same long, ice blue hair as before, an unfortunate source of much bullying in the past, her skin was now an even paler shade of blue. The only other notable change he could find right away was the addition of webbed fins a shade darker than her skin where her ears should have been.

Hikaru, being the little boy he was, skipped the shocked stage and transferred directly over to stage two; reach up and grab her ear fin.

"Whoa! Umi-chan, what happened? You got all blue and pretty!"

While an older girl might have gotten angry over a perceived implication that she hadn't been pretty before, Umi just took this at face value and giggled at the boy, a slight blush on her cheeks from the compliment.

"Dunno, but you got all fuzzy and cute!" This caused Hikaru to start laughing as well as he scrathed the back of his head, something he'd seen Papa do when he talked to pretty girls before.

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

As the two child companions got reacquainted with each other, all thought to the turmoil that had just passed, their current guardians just sat to the side, watching the two interact and digesting the events that just smiled indulgently as Hikaru shouted tag and they started chasing each other around. About a minute later thought Yoshida turned to Ryoshi.

"I'm going to go and get whatever fell from that crab Umi-chan killed. Can you watch over her for me till I get back?"

The DireWolf looked at her in surprise. While Undine and DireWolves held no real animosity for each other most times, nor did they have any real trust between them either. But, he considered, the two kids probably made this a special case.

"I suppose. I was taking Hikaru over to the building in the lake before all this. I can take her along just as easily."

He was struck with a sudden thought as his gaze traveled over to the pile of Apricots (remember, those are crabs) still lying on the sands.

"Well, at least we don't need to worry about food for a bit." Yoshida raised an eyebrow at this.

"Indeed. Well, I see you all shortly at the building then." And with that she floated off into the water.

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

"Gotcha!" Umi cried as she launched herself at Hikaru. The two had been playing for about ten minutes and were starting to get tired. What neither noticed was that Hikaru had started moving on all fours intermittently, moving side to side in quick bursts off speed, while Umi had been launching herself from greater and greater distances to tackle him. As they sat on the ground laughing though it seemed their playtime had run short.

"C'mon you two. We want to get to the building before you tire yourselves out completely or it gets dark out. Nastier things tend to come out after dark." Ryoshi said padding up to them.

"Awww! Hai Ryoshi-nii." Hikaru was upset that they had to stop playing, but always did his best to do what Papa told him, so did the same for Ryoshi, having adopted him as an older brother figure.

"Ryoshi? Like the storybook!?" Umi was excited to meet the big canine friend of Hikaru. After all, he was Hikaru's friend, that meant he was okay.

"Hai! It was the first thing that came to mind!" Hikaru bragged excitedly, not counting Papa's name cause that was Papa's and it didn't count. And when Ryoshi pointed it out he'd said as much, Umi giggling to the side and nodding her head. The wolf, not really having any experience with kids, couldn't quite know what to make of it and said instead.

"Alright, enough you two. C'mon, grab a crab and let's get going. We're going to eat them for dinner tonight."

"Hai!" Came the young duet response as they rushed over to the pile and grabbed a crab, though Hikaru, being a boy and six, tried to grab three which he failed at miserably, much to Ryoshi and Umi's not so silent amusement. This of course only drove the boy to try even harder until he found out by accident that by grabbing a hold of his hair, he could pull it out slowly to any length he wanted! This of course let him tie five crabs together for him to drag along.

The reactions this cause were, mixed. Umi excited and somewhat jealous that he could do that with his hair and she couldn't, she'd kept trying though, while Ryoshi... Ryoshi was just plain confused. He had _no_ idea were that had come from as _he_ certainly couldn't do it. After a few minutes thought along the beach however, he decided to simply chalk it up to _'Wierd Adventurer Thing'_ or, more specifically, _'Hikaru's Weirdness'_. Little did he know that was going to be one of the most used phrases later on in the coming months.

-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-|.|+|.|-_-

"Are we there yet?"

[_Negative_]

"Geodude!"

[_Negative_]

"Are we there yet?"

[_Negative_]

"Pikmin!"

[_Negative_]

"Yeah, those aren't rocks, their _veggies_! BLEHG! Andersmith!"

[..._Negative_]

"Are we there _yet?_"

[_Negative_]

"Metroid!"

[_Negative_]

"How 'bout now?"

[_Negative_]

"Terrax?"

[_Negative...Wait. Say that last one again?_]

"That last one again!"

[..._I meant the name shardling._]

"Oh. Terrax?"

[_Affirmative. I shall accept that designation._]

"YATTA!"

...

...

"Are we there now?"

[_sigh, Affirmative shardling. We have arrived at the exit._]

"YATTA!"

'[_What have I gotten myself_ _into?_]'


End file.
